After four years, Alameda more low-key about Obama’s inaugural

Cheryl Taylor catches President Obama's second inaugural with her daughter, Julia Ruderman, 6.

The crowd attending Monday’s inauguration viewing event at the Main Library was smaller and more subdued than the standing-room-only one that turned out when President Barack Obama was first sworn into office four years ago, with a handful of local League of Women Voters stalwarts gathering in the early morning darkness in the library’s main meeting room and a few dozen more arriving as the sunlight filtered in.

But even as the thrill of being part of history has given way to the reality of being president in a deeply partisan age, those who attended Monday’s event offered a list of issues they’d like to see the President tackle over the next four years – with the hope that some of those battle lines may be crossed.

“Standing back like spoiled brats and saying, ‘We’re not going to do things’ is not what our country is about,” Luann DeWitt said.